Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene September 2018 Vol.13 No.4 | Page 17

Water Management
water system, causes the annual loss of some 1.6 billion
cubic metres of water in Cuba. In 2011, a strategic plan
outlining priorities to address this situation began to be
implemented in 12 cities from Havana to Santiago de Cuba
in the east.
population receives the service through networks, the rest
is through septic tanks and other types of treatment,” said
INRH vice-president Rodrìguez. Among these challenges,
he also mentioned poor hydrometric coverage.
“We were able to get 100 percent of the public sector and
all major consumers to be controlled by water metres,
although in the residential sector this coverage reaches just
over 23 percent of the population. From 2015 to 2017,
more than 227,000 water meters have been installed, but
the plan is to reach total coverage,” Rodríguez said.
“Without a doubt, water meters reduce consumption
and allow us to measure the efficiency of our system,”
he added. Like other services, residential water supply is
subsidized by the state and has a very low cost. “There are
four of us and we pay 5.20 pesos a month (less than 0.25
cents of a dollar),” said María Curbelo, a resident of the
Havana neighbourhood of Vedado.
Two workers from the Aguas de La Habana company replace water pipes
and install water meters in homes to measure drinking water consumption in
the Vedado neighbourhood in Havana. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS
When the programme began, losses amounted to 58
percent, both in the water grid and inside homes and other
establishments. So far, the loss has only been reduced to
48 percent. Since 2013, however, work has been underway
on a comprehensive supply and sanitation plan that covers
more than a solution to losses in distribution.
The national hydraulic programme extended until 2030
includes works for water supply, sanitation, storage,
diversion and hydrometry, as well as the necessary
equipment for investment and maintenance. “We are also
working on the construction of seawater desalination
plants,” Rodriguez said. These plans include not only
works to supply the population, but also everything
necessary for agriculture, hotel infrastructure and the
housing programme.
From 2015 to 2017, sewerage coverage has improved by
0.6 per cent and an additional 1.6 million people have
benefited from the water supply.
Currently, only 11 percent of the country’s population
of 11.2 million receive piped water at home 24 hours a
day, and 39 percent at certain times of the day. In the
remaining 50 percent of households, water is available only
sporadically, and sometimes they go more than a week
without water.
“I live in downtown Santiago de Cuba and we have two
large elevated tanks and a cistern. We get piped water from
the grid more or less every seven days and it is enough
for us, even for our daily shower,” a worker from the
telephone company Etecsa told IPS from that city, asking
to remain anonymous.
Part of the historical water deficit in Santiago and other
cities in the eastern-most part of the country has been
alleviated through the transfer of water from regions with
a greater supply. But during times of drought the supply
cycles slow down. “That’s why in my house we are careful
with our water,” she said.
One study found that of the 58 percent of water lost, 20
percent is lost in homes. Another priority is to increase
wastewater treatment. “Although in the country sewage
coverage is more than 96 percent, only 36 percent of the
Alexander Concepción Molina, a worker at Aguas de La Habana,
supervises the thermofusion process of a high-density polyethylene pipe,
which is part of the installation of new water gridsin the Peñas Altas
neighbourhood of Habana del Este, in the Cuban capital. Credit: Jorge
Luis Baños/IPS
Rodriguez explained that to carry out the programme
there is both state and foreign funding, which has made
possible a subsidized home supply. “We have benefited by
foreign loans from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the Organization
of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Spain’s
development aid agency and Chinese donations,” among
others, he said. These are soft loans with a five-year grace
period, two or three percent interest and to be paid in 20
years, with the Cuban State as guarantor.
Source; IPS
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